Christian Answers for the New Age

06/06/2026

THE TWO ETHIOPIC BOOKS OF “DOMINOS” (COVENANT): TESTAMENTUM DOMINI AND EPISTULA APOSTOLORUM
By Marcia Montenegro

These two books, the Testamentum Domini and the Epistula Apostorum (also known as the “The Books of the Covenant” and by the Westernized name, the “Two Dominos”), are considered canon by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Church, and are part of the Ethiopian Bible.

It might be helpful to look at the CANA post on the “Ascension of Isaiah,” another book in some Ethiopian Bibles (but not considered canon) at https://tinyurl.com/ytry285y, as well as the post on the Ethiopian Bible at https://tinyurl.com/4rd575bw, since the two books discussed here are included in the Ethiopian Bible.

These books contain supposed words from Jesus to his disciples after his crucifixion, as well as very detailed rules on church liturgy on areas such as prayers, baptism, the eucharist, exorcisms, and other rituals. I only read the parts related to Jesus, although I looked through some of the other parts.

The book I used is by Michael Mikhail and does not give a publisher but gives the date of 13 May, 2026, which is when I ordered it (so it was printed out that day maybe?). It is one of the many non-canonical books (from the view of those who hold to 66 books in the canon) included in the Ethiopian Bible that is considered canon by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Church.

🔳 Background
The core apocalyptic and church-regulation sections are estimated by scholars to have been written between the mid-4th century and the 5th century AD (c. 350–450 AD), likely originating in Syria or Egypt.

The book frames itself as the hidden discourse given by Jesus Christ to his apostles over the 40 days following his resurrection, laying down structural rules, liturgy, and prayers for the early church. (The above information came from AI drawing on various sources. It was hard to find one or two clear sources because it seems that the information is scattered among many sources, including scholarly ones that are hard to access, but here is one source for some information: https://tinyurl.com/bd3tt7kv).

My article does not claim to be scholarly and I focus more on the content than the history and dates.

🔳 Strange Predictions from “Jesus:" Old babies and Babies in the Womb Who Practice Divination
After the resurrection, Jesus predicts to his disciples that the end times will see a godless king “of foreign race” in the west and a lot of bad things happening. Signs in the heaven will include a bow, a horn, and lights.

On earth, there will be dragons born from men, and young women will have “babes who speak perfectly, announce the last times, and pray to be put to death.” These babies will be gray-haired when born and look old.

Some women will have babies with four feet, some will have babies who are “spirit,” and some babies will practice divination in the womb and speak “with familiar spirits.”

What seems to be the anti-Christ or beast is described as having “his right eye shot with blood,” and his left one blue-black. His eyelashes are white and “his lower lip is large, but his right thigh is slender; his feet are broad; and his great toe is bruised and flat.” (Perhaps there is a cultural significance to all this, I don't know).

Comments:
This bizarre passage speaks for itself and, in my view, is clearly unbelievable. To put these words in the mouth of Jesus is very offensive.

🔳 Salvation by Works?
A few sections seem to imply a salvation by works. If one does the words Jesus gives of “the Rule Ecclesiastical” that person will live in Christ, but if not, has “destruction” of their soul. A few other passages offered similar words/ideas.

🔳 Jesus Descends to Earth
As in the “Ascension of Isaiah,” Jesus tells his disciples how he descended from heaven to earth. And,,as in that account, Jesus disguises himself as an angel. Even Gabriel and Michael were deceived and thought Jesus was an angel.

🔳 The “Birth” of Jesus
Jesus tells the apostle that he took on the appearance of Gabriel and brought the message of his own birth to Mary, disguised as Gabriel. Here are the next words:

“I took the form of the angel Gabriel, I appeared unto Mary and spake with her. She believed and laughed, and I formed myself and entered into her body. I became flesh, because I was mine own messenger…(snip)…Thereafter did I return to my Father.”

Comments:
Jesus disguises himself as an angel to descend to earth. This is, of course, not how Jesus incarnated.

And here again, as in “The Ascension of Isaiah,” is a non-human birth of Jesus. Jesus goes into the womb of Mary, but then ascends back to God, apparently leaving himself as an unborn baby on earth. So Jesus is divided into a human Jesus and a non-human Jesus, which is not only heretical but illogical.

Comments:
If Jesus did not have a normal human birth, then the humanity of Jesus is left out. To deny his full humanity is as serious as denying his deity. Only as man could Jesus pay for sins on the cross and be the mediator for men (see Hebrews 2:14-17).

🔳 Boring Speeches
Jesus continues to speak with the disciples who keep repeating their questions. But Jesus often never answers them directly; he gives long flowery speeches with a lot of repetitious and boring statements.

Here is an example:

“Again we said unto him: Lord, already we are ashamed that we question you these oft-times and burden thee. And he answered and said unto us: I know that in faith and with your whole heart ye do question me; therefore, do I rejoice over you, for verily I say unto you: I rejoice, and my Father that is in me, because you question me, and your importunity is unto me rejoicing and unto you it giveth life.”

It goes on and on like that for pages without much of import being said.

🔳 Jesus Preaches After Crucifixion
Jesus states that he went to “the place of Lazarus” and preached to the righteous and the prophets so that they could leave that place and go “above.” Jesus gave them the “baptism of life and forgiveness and salvation from all evil.”

Comments:
This is likely based on the passage in First Peter 3:18-20, but the view in this book of the Ethiopian Bible is not even one of the views of that passage held historically in the church. Rather, this account implies that
1) people are saved after death
2) that Old Testament saints were not saved by faith, as given in Scripture, such as Abraham believing in God and becoming righteous through his faith (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:9, Romans 4:22, Galatians 3:6, James 2:23).

I am not getting into the issues of where Old Testament saints are now or all the complicated issues surrounding that, as well as the issues raised by the First Peter 3 passage (one view being that Jesus did not go to Sheol after his crucifixion but to Paradise as he told the thief on the cross), since that is not the topic here. I only want to point out that this account is not in Scripture and is not compatible with it.

There is a more in this book but is not worth it to me to write about. I think the heresies about Christ are sufficient to show that it in conflict with Scripture.

Many make the argument that Enoch 1 should be canon because it is in the Ethiopian Bible. Perhaps they are not aware of books like this that are considered canon by the Ethiopian Church, even though it has fantastic and unbiblical scenarios. In other words, the Ethiopian Bible is not a good argument to use for what should be canon.

06/02/2026

The Ascension of Isaiah and Its Heresies
By Marcia Montenegro

Note: It might be helpful to read the CANA blog on the Ethiopian Bible at https://tinyurl.com/4rd575bw since "The Ascension of Isaiah" is found in some Ethiopian Bibles as apocryphal but not as canon.

This is not a scholarly or academic article and I do not claim to be a scholar. I am writing about this extra-biblical book mainly by comparing it to what Scripture has to say about Jesus. There is scholarly information on “The Ascension of Isaiah” that one can find if interested, such as in M. A. Knibb, trans., "The Ascension of Isaiah," in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 2:143), which was kindly lent to me by one of the pastors at my church (each volume has over 1,000 pages).

🔳 Historical Information
“The Ascension of Isaiah,” one of the books in the Ethiopian Bible, is composed of two distinct documents, “The Martyrdom of Isaiah” (Chapters 1-5), and “The Vision of Isaiah” (Chapters 6-11). But “The Martyrdom of Isaiah” contains another independent work, “The Testament of Hezekiah” (also known by other names), which is found in chapters 3:13 to 4:22. There are also insertions and additions attributed to whoever edited it.

“The Testament of Hezekiah” and the “The Vision of Isaiah” are Christian additions. The events in the latter are described as taking place prior to the account of Isaiah’s martyrdom, showing that “The Vision” section had circulated independently of the “The Martyrdom” section (Charlesworth, 147). The dates given by Knibb are 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD and he writes that it seems likely that the disparate parts were brought together in the 3rd or 4th century AD (Knibb, 2:150).

The copy I read was translated by Robert Charles and has a parallel text in Ge’ez (ancient Ethiopian). It is published by Mutanabbi Publications, 2019 (first published in 1900). For most other information, I used “The Old Testament Pseudopigraphia, Vol. 2,” mentioned above. Also see further general information in the Addendum.

This book was partly originally in Hebrew and partly in Greek. The Hebrew part was translated into Greek, and subsequently the whole work was translated into several languages, including the Ethiopic Ge-ez language. There is much more historical and textual information about this, and I suggest that anyone interested get a copy of the edition edited by Charlesworth (which includes many other extra-biblical books).

Knibb writes that although some parallels are found between some gnostic texts and “The Vision of Isaiah” portion, it is not clear whether this can be called a gnostic work (2:150).

🔳 The Narratives of the Book
This book claims to recount what led up to the martyrdom of Isaiah as well as his death, and what Isaiah saw as he was allegedly taken from the court of Hezekiah up through what is called the seven heavens (or seven levels of heaven). It also recounts the alleged descent of Jesus through the seven heavens as he travels to earth to be born, as well as his return through the seven heavens after his ascension. Isaiah shares this with Hezekiah. There is also a brief prophetic section about the end times.

The seven levels of heaven have a basis in many ancient worldviews and are usually correlated to the spheres of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were not discovered until the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries). The Book of Enoch (Enoch 1) also has Enoch traveling through seven realms of heaven as well as receiving secrets of the cosmos. A lot in this book reminded me of Enoch 1, except that Enoch 1 has much more esoterica in it and more “secrets” that Enoch allegedly learned in the heavens (which is all false, of course, since Enoch did not write any of this material).

Keep in mind that this is extra-biblical and was never part of the canon of Scripture. Without denying the clear historical and scholarly interest of this book, one must admit that it presents clear heresies about Christ.

🔳 Jesus Descending to Earth
There are numerous problems with this book, but most of them have to do with Jesus.

Isaiah supposedly is led by an angel up through the seven heavens and the first 63 pages of the 79 pages in the copy I read describe this. Upon reaching the seventh heaven, Isaiah sees “the angel of the Spirit” (Gabriel is called “the angel of the Holy Spirit” earlier) and he views Jesus worshiping God.

Comments:
This implies that Jesus is lesser than God, so it is a heretical and illogical view of the Trinity that one person of the Trinity would worship another person of the Trinity. In this case, Jesus has not yet added humanity to his deity and incarnated, so he has the glory of God that he had prior to his incarnation and, of course, is equal to God (John 17.5).

The account continues with the supposed descent of Jesus to earth. After he reaches the 5th heaven, Jesus disguises himself to look like the angels of each level as he descends so they won’t recognize him. On the third level, Jesus has to give a password to those who keep the gate of the third heaven, and this is repeated with his descent to the second and first heavens.

When Jesus gets to the “firmament where dwelleth the ruler of this world” he gives another password. This is the area around earth ruled by Satan, according to this account. Jesus disguises himself like “the angels of the air.”

Comments:
This is a list of heretical and unbiblical ideas in this section:
1. Jesus disguises himself as an angel so nobody knows who he is
2. Jesus descends through the seven heavens to earth to incarnate. This, of course, is not how Jesus incarnated.
3. Jesus gives a password starting in the fifth heaven and below; the idea of a password in realms beyond earth came from Gnostic writings (where beings called Archons were gatekeepers of the seven spheres of heaven) but goes back even earlier to Egyptian religion:

From the British Museum site at https://tinyurl.com/3mk5esam (I had a copy of “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” which I read when I was in the New Age).

This type of esoterica is found in many extra-biblical books. One can tell that Satan inspired it because it is a mixture of what appears to be adulation of God or Jesus with outright heretical assertions.

🔳 The Semi-Human Birth of Jesus
I am not even sure one can say what is described here is a semi-human birth. One might even say it is a non-human birth. The first false idea is that Jesus descended as an angel through the seven heavens prior to the birth in order to incarnate.

Secondly, two months after Joseph and Mary are engaged, Mary “saw a small babe, and she was astonished” and her “womb was found as formerly before she had conceived.”

Comments:
The text states that Mary conceived but rather than giving birth in the normal way, Jesus suddenly appears as a baby after two months (some women may wish this was the way they could have children).

Jesus coming to earth disguised as an angel, then somehow transitioning to Mary’s womb only to appear as a baby after two months, is not a normal human birth, so it denies the full humanity of Jesus. Denying the full humanity of Jesus is a serious heresy (as serious as denying his deity).

Jesus could not be the savior of humans and mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2.5) if he had not been fully human. As Hebrews chapter 2 tells us:

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Verses 14-17)

So far, the account of Jesus in “The Ascension of Isaiah” conflicts on many points with Scripture, not to mention there is no account of how his birth was celebrated by the angels or how the shepherds went to see him. On the contrary, the text has Jesus disguising himself so the angels do not recognize him.

If you think this is strange, wait until you read about the birth of Jesus in my upcoming article on another book in the Ethiopian Bible, the Book of the Covenant (also known as the Two Dominos).

🔳 The Ascent of Jesus
The book states that the adversary did not know who Jesus was but envied him, so he “roused the children of Israel against him” and Jesus was crucified.

Isaiah sees Jesus “rise again” and then begin an ascent to heaven. The angels of the earth’s firmament, including Satan, see Jesus and worship him.

As Jesus rises through each of the levels of heaven, he is no longer disguised and the angels recognize him so they praise and worship him.

Isaiah’s account of this to Hezekiah is passed on by Hezekiah to his son Manasseh, but Manasseh, being evil, did not remember it and served Satan.

Comments:
The Ascension has Jesus being crucified because Satan was jealous of Jesus, but did not know who he was until Christ’s Ascension. This directly contradicts Scripture which tells us how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, and how Jesus openly rebuked demons who recognized Jesus, and how Jesus spoke about Satan many times. Are we to believe Satan was unaware of this and of who Jesus was? This idea is so clearly false that Satan did not know who Jesus was and shows how this book is against God’s word.

Having Satan worship Jesus at the point of the Ascension is not biblical. Satan is depicted in the Bible as a continual enemy of God and Jesus, and as one who has never worshiped God as the adversary.

Despite the references to how the angels praised and worshiped Jesus, Jesus plays a rather small part in this book. It is more about Isaiah and what he allegedly sees and experiences. As mentioned earlier, the part about Jesus is a small part of the whole book.

The fact that Isaiah would have witnessed Joseph and Mary and the odd “birth” of Jesus (leaving out the heretical way Jesus was born) when he was a prophet is totally preposterous and unnecessary. It actually takes away from Isaiah’s true prophecies as recorded in Scripture because this account conflicts with the Bible, distracts from Jesus, and presents a heretical Jesus who cannot save.

This book has the pretense of honoring Jesus while actually undermining him and depicting him falsely.

CANA post on the Ethiopian Bible
https://tinyurl.com/4rd575bw

ADDENDUM
This is from the Britannica website:

< Ascension of Isaiah, pseudepigraphal work surviving intact only in a 5th–7th-century-ad Ethiopic edition. Fragments exist in Greek, Coptic, Latin, and Old Slavonic. Three separate works comprise the total book, the final version by a Christian editor, which appeared in the 2nd century ad. The first section is entitled “The Martyrdom of Isaiah,” a Midrash on the Manasseh story in II Kings 21, possibly written originally in Hebrew or Aramaic in the early 1st century ad. It includes a legendary martyr motif and extensive passages on demonology. The second is the “Testament of Hezekiah,” a Christian work, dating from the late 1st century ad, that contains a concept of Antichrist as a spirit dwelling in the Roman emperor Nero (ad 54–68), whose persecution of Christians in 64–65 was thought to be the chaos preceding the advent of the messianic age. The third work is called the “Ascension (or Vision) of Isaiah,” also written by a Christian at the beginning of the 2nd century. It contains a description of the seven tiers of heaven paralleling that found in the Second Book of Enoch and in the New Testament.> From https://tinyurl.com/5n84jywp

06/02/2026

Since the Enneagram came up recently with my post on Jennie Allen (who embraces and promotes it), I am reposting this. I have updated the links and include a link to the "Unbelievable" program I did discussing/debating the Enneagram with Todd Wilson, author of "The Enneagram Goes to Church." I also just saw a counseling page full of false information about the Enneagram!

06/01/2026

BILL GAULTIERE of SOUL SHEPHERDING continues to draw pastors and others into the enneagram and mystical contemplative practices. He is one of many but I decided after being asked him recently to reshare this post I did. At the end are links to 4 previous CANA posts on Gaultiere.

05/30/2026

This is Doreen Virtue's post on the program on Akiane, just put online today.

Akiane’s childhood painting of The Prince of Peace has been hailed by the media as an accurate representation of Jesus Christ. Yet, Akiane’s own descriptions...